A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

I’m not sure who decided that an outdoor mall in New England was a good idea…but none the less, I love Legacy Place.

Hint: I’d park outside. The garage can be a hassle to get in and out of. Whole Foods has it’s own parking lot (in back) and many stores have valet parking. The Boston Magazine also has tips on navigating Legacy Place http://www.bostonmagazine.com/shopping_style/articles/the_hunt_how_to_shop_legacy_place/ Navigating Legacy Place can be a bit tricky. If you go out by the LL Bean you can’t take a left hand turn, so you are better off leaving behind the movie theater. The parking lot and roads in the mall don’t seem to be well thought out, but it’s a mall-I have yet to find one mall parking lot I actually like!

The Whole Foods website says “We are very excited that this location will be the first store in Massachusetts to generate on-site power with fuel cell technology (one of the cleanest forms of energy)! 90% of our power will be generated by this fuel cell – this is something that we are very proud of.”

I have to admit that the first few times I went there, I never made it past the gelato bar. I was lured in and continued to go back even though the price for a small was insane. So on my third trip there, I closed my eyes and scurried past the gelato stand, trying not to lose my will power…and I’m glad I did. I was introduced to  a shawarma bar (for those unfamiliar, wikipedia says “Shawarma (Arabic: شاورما‎), is a Middle Eastern and Southeastern European sandwich-like wrap of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef, or a halal mixture of meats. The meat is placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day. Chunks of fat within the meat ensure that the shawarma stays juicy. Shawarma is a fast-food staple across the Middle East and North Africa.Shawarma is eaten with pita bread, tabouli, fattoush, taboon bread, tomato and cucumber. Toppings include tahini, hummus, pickled turnips and amba.Shawarma is a version of döner kebab and is thus similar to gyros.”) a burrito bar, soup and salad station, bread bar, nut and granola bar, a cheese shop and a fresh pasta area, not to mention an enormous section of wine!

The fresh pasta comes from New Jersey. You can get regular pasta, whole wheat, spinach or tomato cut into any thickness you want! You can also get a variety of filled pastas but I recommend the sweet potato gnocchi-it’s out of this world.  They have sauces available to buy but the pasta is so good you don’t need any! The sweet potato gnocchi  tastes like it has some nutmeg in it, it makes you feel all warm inside when you eat it. See Severino pasta website.

Another great feature about this whole foods is that you can have lunch there. Grab some food from any of the stations, pay at the register and sit in a sunny section in the front of the store. They have wi-fi and a play place for the kids.

Beware: Don’t come here if you’re hungry because you’ll want to buy everything in the store!

Update:3/10 I had a burrito at the burrito station. Whole Foods just isn’t the place to get a burrito-salads, produce, other specialty items, gelato…yes…burrito, not so much. The burrito in general was bland, but then I would get a bite of something super spicy, must have been the chicken. The pieces of chicken were huge, you needed to take them out of the burrito and cut them up in to decent sized pieces. I should have just stuck with the gelato bar!

300 Legacy Place
Dedham, MA 02026

Phone 781-329-7100

Store hours:
8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. seven days a week